Print
Close
The Latest: Pulse had twice exits needed; 1 inoperable
Published June 28, 2016
The Latest on the mass shooting at a gay Orlando nightclub that left 49 people dead (all times local):
11:30 a.m.
Emails and texts released by the Orlando Fire Department indicate that one of the exits at the Pulse nightclub was inoperable weeks before the massacre of 49 patrons by a gunman on June 12.
But the records released Tuesday also suggest that the gay nightclub had twice the number of exits needed to accommodate its maximum occupancy of 300 patrons.
An email exchange between Orlando Fire Marshall Tammy Hughes and Fire Chief Roderick Williams says that the last fire inspection was conducted in late May.
A follow-up visit was planned but hadn't yet been assigned so it wasn't known if the problem was fixed.
Hughes says that was within a normal follow-up schedule.
In a text message, Hughes says the club's six exits were enough to handle double the allowable occupancy.
___
6:10 a.m.
A preliminary hearing will lay out ground rules for another hearing later this week on the fight between media companies and the city of Orlando over whether 911 calls from the mass shooting at a Florida nightclub can be made public.
Circuit Judge Margaret Schreiber is presiding over Tuesday's scheduled hearing involving Orlando officials and nearly two dozen news organizations including The Associated Press, CNN and The New York Times.
The media lawsuit contends city officials are wrongly withholding recordings of 911 calls and communications between gunman Omar Mateen and the Orlando Police Department. Mateen was killed by police early June 12 after a standoff in the shooting at the Pulse nightclub that killed 49 people and wounded 53 others.
City officials claim the recordings are exempt under Florida law.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/the-latest-pulse-had-twice-exits-needed-1-inoperable